The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-12-21
WONDERS OF THE HEAVENS.
Jarrett II. Serviss' Lecture Before the
BROOKLYN Chautauquans.

Garrett II. Serviss' Lecture Before the
BROOKLYN Chautauquans.
With the aid of the stereopticon the
lecturer took his audience upon an ex-
cursion into the creations of space and
showed them some of the marvels to be
found within the ken OF the telescope.
1t was a bird's-eye view, but no per
sonally conducted" party of tourists
ever saw SO many wonders in SO short
space of time.
The first station upon this solar Jour
ney was the sun, and as it was approached
Mr.. serviss attempted to give his fell
low-trsvelers some adequate idea of
how big the sun is The earth's mass,
said the guide, weighs six sextillion tons,
How big is o sextillion? Well, if
man were to stand on the torch-balcony
OF Bartholdi's statue and throw $40 gold
pieces into the bay at the rate of one
every second, it would take him thous-
ands upon thousands of years to get
ri1 of six sextillion dollars. Wall
street might afford quicker method of
getting rid of q fortune, but not much.
Ii the sun We're put in the balance it
would require 100000 earths, each
weighingsix seXtillion tons, to tip the
beam. 1t may be safely concluded,
therefore, that the sun Is pretty big
thing. The power of his attraction was
next measured, and it was illustrated
by Mr.. Serviss in this way: The earth
moves through space at the rate of
nineteen miles per second. A cannon
ball will only travel one mile while the
earth is travelling eighty miles 1t is the
power of the suns attraction which
holds this whirling sphere in its orbit.
1t has been estimated that were the
suns attraction to cease suddenly, it
would require bar of the finest steel
1900 miles thick to hold it in its orbit
The suns attraction, however, is more
powerful than a steel rod of that 81
would be. 1t holds all the planets OF
our system in their places. 1t goes
further than that and reaches out in
- le depths Of space beyond our system,
and acts upon other suns and is acted
upon by them. 1t collars vagrant
comet and drags it within its kingdom,
and, after compelling it to do homage
at it's feet, sends the visitor Off again
into the realms of space; but when the
wanderer is 100000, 900, coo miles be-
yond our SYSTEMS boundaries, the bride
OF the sun is still upon its neck and his
masterful hand restraints its wander
in&.
Mr.. Serviss next took up the sub; ect
OF sun spots, and gave q very interest
ing account of these phenomena. lie
explained how vast upleaping masses
of matter break from the suns mass,
tearing holes in the suns envelope, into
which dozen worlds could drop like
billiard balls into corner pocket. Pic
lures were also given of the appear
ance of the sun at the time of total
eclipse. Other views showed the red
flames of burning hydrogen, leaping up
thousands upon thousands OF miles
above the suns surface. The relation
of sun spots to electric storms In our
atmosphere was also indicated. Com
cts were the next thing considered.
These Marco Polos of the universe, as
the lecturer cal ed them, came wander
ing in from the realms of space like
ambassadors from other systems, to do
homage to the sun. 1t is not until they
come within the range of the suns
more powerful influence that the fam
ing tails begin to appear. The comet
circles round the sun always with the
tail turned away from the orb, and re-
treats from the sun still with the
streamers turned away, like suppliant
backing out of the presence of king.
The extreme tenuity of comets mass
shows that they are composed of the
fimsiest solar materials. 1t was pointed
out how the phenomena of meteors are
connected with comets Mr.. Serviss, as
BECAME an adventurous sky pilot, took
hiStraveling party still further afeld,
and showed them that Sirius, the brill
liant dog star, is sun from 500 to 1000
times larger than our king of day,
proving that the great lord of our solar
system is petty chieitain of small
clan when compared with many of the
monarchs of the starry realms. Even
the great Sirius is a small beer of fell
low 10y the side of some of his COM
Da.c-a linn En1lIn